1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an arrangement for sorting addressed objects and distributing them to receptacles associated with the addresses designated. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for sorting addressed order bags loaded with photographic material and distributing such bags to receptacles associated with specified customers or dealers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,276 discloses apparatus for sorting objects having various destinations. The apparatus comprises a circulating continuous conveyor path having on both sides thereof a plurality of movable containers. Each container comprises several individual compartments that have an open top and an openable bottom. The containers are spaced randomly and are movable independently of one another along the conveyor path.
At a loading station the constituent compartments of each container are loaded with the objects to be sorted through their open tops. The containing comprising those compartments is then moved along the conveyor path to a sorting station, where the objects are released from the compartments, via their openable bottoms, to underlying removable receptacles associated with the intended destinations of those objects.
The loading station includes a coding facility at which an operator marks the objects to be sorted and feeds pertinent sorting data to a corresponding control unit. From there, the marked objects are first advanced transversely, relative to the conveyor path, by a plurality of moving conveyor belts, and are then moved longitudinally, by a system of driven rollers, into a pivotable chute adapted to convey each object individually to an awaiting container compartment therebelow.
The container, with its loaded compartments, is then moved along the conveyor path to a sorting station, as mentioned above. When a loaded compartment arrives above its corresponding destination receptacle at the sorting station, the control unit actuates an actuation member associated with that compartment in order to open its bottom and release the object therein to the underlying receptacle.
While such prior apparatus may be satisfactory in some applications, there has remained a need for an improved sorting and distributing arrangement which is more adaptable to use with increasingly greater numbers of destinations, an arrangement that ensures a higher sorting and distributing efficiency, and which operates more simply and reliably, and at a low noise level.